Mitchell's Birthday

The guest of honor

Tearing through the booty...

...before the assembled throng

Katie wants her camera time.

Those are lightning bugs, not cold sores...I think.

Visitors from the North

Debby and Frank Murtha came to visit, and we were so busy visiting and oohhing and ahhing over Zammy, that we didn't get more than this picture. Oops!

Big Z makes Little Z proud

Big Z pitched very well, and hit very well, too, hitting a home run, in a 2-1 victory. Even though he was pretty bad early in the season, making Zammy and his folks nervous, he is now only one behind the National League lead in victories. Plus, he showed some of his trademark fire.

He next pitches Saturday.

Shelley and Sverre Come to Visit

Tania's matron of honor, Shelley, and her husband, Sverre, came to visit from the Twin Ciites to see what having a baby is all about (she is pregnant), and likely more importantly, to see their beloved Atlanta Braves tussle with the Cubs. They were pretty excited to come to Wrigley, and have some famous Chicago pizza.

Love them random drunken bar chicks!

We got a babysitter and went to Chicago Pizza and Grinder Company. Pretty good grub.

Charles Nelson Reilly Dies at 76

Charles Nelson Reilly was always a favorite of my mom's, and became a favorite of mine, though I only really know him from Match Game. When I heard he died while we were on vacation, I was completely bummed. From an article I found on the internets:


Reilly's comic timing, honed by years of working in theater before coming out to Hollywood, was impeccable. And he wielded his booming voice to demonstrate just how uproarious the missed obvious can be.

There's a reason why, even after his TV career had shrunk, he was in demand as an acting coach, and a stage star as peerless as Julie Harris repeatedly would ask him to be her director. He had won a Tony for "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," which he did between "Hello, Dolly!" and "Bye Bye Birdie" -- a six-year Broadway span that had been preceded by a decade of off-Broadway and stock. He had known immense struggle before arriving at success in New York, and when he was offered highly remunerative work in Hollywood, he wasn't about to snub it.

Yet it wasn't long before he realized that the greatest role he would be offered was that of Charles Nelson Reilly. Self-dramatizing by nature, he knew the depth, intelligence and heart of his character, and he had no need to bluff.

Still, as he related in his solo show, he was astonished by his success in the part. Never would he have imagined that he -- an oddball kid from the Bronx -- would have appeared, by his own count, more than 100 times on "The Tonight Show" and been able to circle his name 38 times in the TV Guide listings for a single week.